O'Malley working to resolve protests over parish closings
SUDBURY -- Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has quietly begun addressing a burgeoning revolt among Catholic parishioners trying to block closing of their local churches, holding private meetings with priests from the protesting parishes and sending a priest and a nun for a second time as emissaries to a Weymouth parish where a sit-in is in its fourth week, church officials said.
O'Malley met yesterday with the Rev. John P. Fitzpatrick, former administrator of St. Anselm Parish in Sudbury, where a similar sit-in has blocked efforts by the archdiocese to shutter the church and turn it over to a real estate broker.
The archbishop also met yesterday with the Rev. Robert Bowers, pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Charlestown, whose parishioners have also pledged to occupy their church if O'Malley does not take it off the list of 82 to be closed by the end of the year under a plan to consolidate parishes in the archdiocese.
The meetings seem to represent a more hands-on strategy by O'Malley, who has been criticized for the closings plan. It would shutter nearly a quarter of the parishes in the archdiocese, which is still recovering from the clergy sex abuse scandal.
An archdiocesan spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, confirmed that O'Malley "is meeting with pastors of parishes as necessary."
"He's continuing to speak with the people and the staff of parishes that are closing to be on top of any possible hot spots," Coyne said.
About two dozen of the 357 churches in the Boston archdiocese have been closed, mostly without incident, and Coyne said the archdiocese is trying to help local staff at the remaining parishes on the closure list to better communicate "the reasons why their parish is closing and the hope for the future that comes from moving into new parishes."
But even as O'Malley tried to address the parishioner revolt, the resolve at the two occupied parishes seemed to be stiffening, and sit-in protests seemed increasingly likely at three other churches.
"We're feeling strong," said Jamie Hanson, a 41-year-old member of the Parish Council at St. Anselm, who sat in the pews of the Sudbury church yesterday using his laptop computer to work and to surf local newspaper websites for stories about the protest.
Hanson was using a wireless Internet network that a parishioner installed in the church last week, so that protesters could work and surf the Web while participating in the vigil. The network is one of several indicators that the protesters are preparing for a long haul. Another was that Hanson said he was going to
St. Anselm's parishioners were officially told yesterday that the archdiocese had rejected their appeal of the closing, but parishioners kept to their daily schedule of two prayer services. About two dozen attended the noon service.
On Sundays, Hanson said, lay Eucharistic ministers offer Communion for which protesters have secured consecrated hosts they keep hidden in the church.
In Dedham, meanwhile, parishioners at St. Susanna Parish have accumulated $50,000 in a save-the-parish fund, $20,000 of which was raised at a benefit dance at the Moseley's on the Charles function hall last week. The money would pay legal fees and utilities, as well as other bills, to keep the church open.
"This is breaking our hearts," Parish Council member Gene Derba, said of the plan to close St. Susanna. If need be, he said, parishioners are prepared to occupy the church to prevent its closure.
The pastor of St. Susanna, the Rev. Stephen Josoma, met with O'Malley last week, Derba said, "but nothing was resolved.
Parish Council members in St. Bernard Parish in West Newton have also said they will occupy their church when it closes next month, but a spokesman for the lay group at St. Catherine of Siena in Charlestown said parishioners there have not decided what to do.
Although they want to save their church, spokesman Peter Borre said, parishioners at St. Catherine are concerned first with saving three programs -- a major Alcoholics Anonymous center, a food pantry, and a youth activities center -- that serve the surrounding community and the Bunker Hill public housing development nearby. Church members view the programs as vital, but the archdiocese has done little or no planning to relocate them, Borre said.
Borre said a prayer meeting scheduled for next Saturday will help lay leaders gauge the sentiment of the parish, but he added there is already a deep feeling that the archdiocese's process of closing churches and hearing appeals is badly flawed. "What is the point of playing this game by the rules if the referees have already decided what the final score is?" he said.
In Weymouth, a priest and nun dispatched by the archdiocese were scheduled to meet last night with four members of the pastoral council from St. Albert the Great, this time in an announced visit.
On Monday, the Rev. Jack Ahearn, a former associate pastor at St. Albert, and Sister Catherine O'Connor, a psychologist at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, came unannounced to the church to initiate talks at the behest of the archbishop. But they were met with angry, frustrated parishioners who said they resented not being informed ahead of time and who asked the two to return and meet with their Pastoral Council. The church was officially closed Sept. 1, but since Aug. 29 parishioners have conducted a round-the-clock prayer vigil, refusing to give up their church.
Colin Riley, a spokesman for the parishioners, said before the meeting last night that it was an important first step. "We've always asked for an opportunity to speak and hear the reasons why St. Albert's was selected [to close] because they really haven't given us any," Riley said.
After the two-hour meeting, the two sides issued a brief joint statement that read: "The representatives of the archbishop met with representative members of the pastoral council. Further meetings will be scheduled."
Bella English of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
